1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a front windshield support structure of a vehicle, wherein a lower end of a front windshield is supported on an upper portion of a reinforcing part of a dashboard upper part via a windshield support.
2. Description of the Related Art
Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2004-217144 discloses a cowl structure comprising a cowl 1 extending in the vehicle width direction along the upper edge of a dashboard panel 3 of an automobile. The cowl 1 is formed so as to have a box-shaped cross section having a bottom wall part 11 on the lower side, a vertical wall part 12 on the rear side, an upper wall part 13 on the upper side, and a plurality of shock absorbing members 2 on the front side. The upper wall part 13 supports the lower end of a front windshield 70. When a collision load acts on the front windshield 70, an easily deforming part 14 formed in the intermediate part of the vertical wall part 12 and the plurality of shock absorbing members 2 are vertically deformed and crushed to absorb the shock.
In the cowl structure described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2004-217144, when a collision load acts on the front windshield 70, both the vertical wall part 12 and the shock absorbing members 2 are deformed forward and vertically crushed. Therefore, the crush amount is small and a sufficient shock absorbing effect cannot be achieved. Further, because the internal space of the cowl 1 is used as a gas-liquid separation part of an air conditioner, the size of the cowl 1 is increased, thereby disadvantageously reducing the degree of freedom in design.